• Offered by School of Art and Design
  • ANU College ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
  • Course subject Design
  • Areas of interest Digital Arts, Digital Humanities, Creative Arts, Design
  • Academic career UGRD
  • Course convener
    • Geoff Hinchcliffe
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Offered in Winter Session 2022
    See Future Offerings

Design Thinking is a term used to describe processes involving the application of user research, ideation, participation and collaboration for problem-solving and innovation in a wide range of cultural contexts. In practice, Design Thinking embraces rapid iteration, prototyping, co-design and participatory design, empathic design, design probes and other ethnographic and user-centred methods. This course makes a critical examination of this domain, considering its processes, products and relationship to other human-centred design methodologies. The course asks students to apply design thinking methods in their own disciplinary practice through conducting research, concept development, context analysis and creative production. Students will also investigate and critically interpret the defining concepts and theories of this domain. This course has relevance to a broad set of disciplines and especially to design practitioners seeking new approaches for ideation, engagement and innovation.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

  1. interpret and apply Design Thinking theories, concepts, and processes;
  2. creatively adapt to the technical and cultural constraints of a specific context;
  3. conduct and interpret user research and apply the findings to a design process; and
  4. critically reflect on practice and substantiate design outcomes with research and rationale.

Indicative Assessment

  1. User Research report &/or presentation, 1200 words (25) [LO 1,3,4]
  2. Design project (50) [LO 1,2,3,4]
  3. Project rationale report, 1200 words (25) [LO 1,3,4]
  4. Assessment tasks require contribution to in-class activities including group work. Assessment includes periodic critique and review sessions that provide formative feedback on work in progress. (null) [LO null]

The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.

Workload

130 hours of total student learning time made up from:

a) 48 hours of contact comprising lectures, tutorials / workshops.

b) 82 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.

Inherent Requirements

Not applicable

Requisite and Incompatibility

To enrol in this course you must have completed 36 units of undergraduate study.

Prescribed Texts

Not applicable

Preliminary Reading

Readings and resources will be provided via the course Wattle site.

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.  

Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees

Student Contribution Band:
12
Unit value:
6 units

If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.

Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.

Units EFTSL
6.00 0.12500
Domestic fee paying students
Year Fee
2022 $3600
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2022 $4980
Note: Please note that fee information is for current year only.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.

Winter Session

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
4670 21 Jun 2022 29 Jun 2022 08 Jul 2022 22 Jul 2022 In Person View

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